Salsa. Every year I grow tomatoes and every year I make salsa. Some years I make a lot, some years I make just a bit. A lot could be as much as 28 pints, a little could be only 7. I have to be in the mood. This year I can't get into the mood. I am trying...
Oh, by the way, I am Tina who is doing all that trying. I had told Heidi I would help out and do a post, and finally here I am doing it. I am the big sister of the Gold Country Girls., and I will contribute when I can, hopefully once a week or so.
So last weekend, I tried again, and I have a large basket full. So large, I had to carry it in from the garden in shifts, walk a bit, set it down, look at the view, start again. It is a long way from the garden to the house. I think there are at least 25 lbs. of tomatoes in that basket.

I've picked the tomatoes (actually this is my second picking.) The first batch didn't get lucky. I wasn't in the mood. So those tomatoes ended up in other things, spaghetti, salads, sandwiches, they aren't going to make it to next year, they were eaten fresh.

So I finally made it to the house. That was last weekend. The tomatoes are still waiting. I am just not feelin' it. When I am in the mood to make salsa I go to town, slicing, boiling. When I am not in the mood, I might just go to town, literally. Get away, keep those tomatoes from staring at me, asking to be chopped up and made into delicious spicy goodness.

I always name my salsas. I have had "Made in the Shade" salsa, which I chopped and mixed under a very large yellow (digger) pine that used to stand just in front of our house. One year dancing was in vogue: "Takes Two to Tango" salsa, and "Hot Cha Cha" salsa. I'ver names them after who grew the tomatoes, or where they grew: "Riverbend Red Hot" salsa, or "Kruk Trail" salsa. Sometimes I think I spend more time figuring out the names than I do making the darned stuff!

Anyway, by the time I get this batch made it deserves a special name. I thought about "Not feelin' It" salsa, or even, "Go ahead, MAKE me make" salsa.

But I think this one will be "Twist My Arm" salsa. If it ever does get made... Right now I have to pack because I am heading out for a visit with Heidi, so...

Happy Birthday, Mr. Falk!

I just read in the paper this morning that today is Peter Falk's 82nd birthday. This TV Guide cover, below, is one I saved because my favorite covers were always the fabulous caricatures created by the late Al Hirschfeld:
I will watch the talented Mr. Falk in anything and everything he does, but Columbo is my favorite!
I bought the DVD set for my husband last Christmas.
Yes, partly because I wanted to see them - but he does really like Columbo, too.
Happy Birthday, Peter - you are one of my favorite actors!

Heidis and Goats

Just Heidis today (indulge me), with and without goats. First up, my favorite Heidi and goat - Shirley Temple as Heidi from the film of the same name:
Madame Alexander's version - "Heidi With Goat":
The "Hi Heidi" doll in her little case - no goat with this one:
Two more of my Heidi dolls, the 14" Madame Alexander, and the Shirley Temple Heidi by Ideal. Who's got their goats?:
A boxed Heidi doll. Now, this one has a goat:
Shirley Temple as Heidi again, with Jean Hersholt as "The Grandfather":
Okay - this one has taken the lead as my all-time favorite (thus far) of the "Got Milk" advertisements. Heidi Klum- and, yes, a goat, too. I love it!
And finally- you know me - if I can manage a Disney connection, I will! On the left, it's Djali, Esmeralda's goat from Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", and I like to think the little miss on the Skyway pin is a Heidi, as well.
She just LOOKS like a Heidi.

What's Penny Wearing? #12

Well, we still have another week of summer, and today Penny Lane is wearing a vintage dress I wore to a summer wedding eighteen years ago:
A friend at work altered it to fit me, and I was delighted with it.
A nice vintage handbag to carry, a handkerchief, and a bracelet my husband gave me:
Beautiful clip-on earrings, which are actually more aqua in color than they look here, and the butterfly hair stick - both gifts from my sister Tina that just happen to go perfectly with my lace dress:
The dress on this pattern was so similar, I just had to save this image to show you. This is a picture of a lovely collage that was made by the ultra-talented Julie over at Jane's Apron.
It has already been sold in her etsy shop, but she sells all kinds of delightful creations!

Then And Now #47 - Libby's

"If it says Libby's, Libby's , Libby's on the label, label, label, you will like it, like it, like it, on your table, table, table":
Well, maybe not the Cooked Ox Tongues so much. Not on my table. The ad above and the asparagus ad below are both from 1910:
Fruit cocktail - this advertisement was in a 1938 Sunset magazine:
Fruit Cocktail again, from 1953 this time. Oh, yes - it looks much better in color!
Peaches and fruit cocktail, also from 1953:
Creamed corn from 1959. I do like it, but I never buy it anymore. I would if I needed it for a recipe, though:
Libby's Lite, from 1981:

And "Now" , here are two current labels. This time the corn is organic, and the peaches are sweetened with Splenda. Modern times, huh?:
"It says Libby's, Libby's, Libby's on the label, label, label."

The Guest Room Bed

I like the pretty rose-strewn coverlet shown here on the cover of the current issue of Bedrooms and Baths (from the editors of Romantic Homes). It reminded me a little bit of the coverlet on our guest room bed:
It's a vintage quilted coverlet I purchased on eBay quite a few years ago, with gorgeous roses and ribbons and polka-dots. As you can see, nothing on the bed matches - but I like it that way:
When I found a linen dust ruffle at a thrift store in the same color pink as the roses on the coverlet, I decided they needed to be together:
It is more of a blanket or a throw, really - not QUITE big enough to be a bedspread, but it just barely makes it, and covers the sides of the mattress. Works for me!
And it's SO pretty!
The best part about my guest bed is when someone comes to visit and sleeps on it. Last night my sister Lori was in that room - and Tina is coming next week!
P.S. Today marks my 2 year anniversary as a blogger. I'm happy to say that it's still fun for me - and I surely am grateful to all of you who read this little blog!

Campbell's Soup Cookbooks

If you are looking for easy and affordable recipes , you can always turn to Campbell's Soup! I love these vintage cookbooks I have collected over the years. Easy Ways to Delicious Meals, 1967:
Cooking With Soup, 1969:
And Most-For-The-Money Main Dishes, 1975:
Eighteen years later, Quick and Easy, featuring recipes utilizing Campbell's entire "Family 0f Fine Products", below. Savory Chicken and Mushrooms, there on the cover, looks really good to me :

And then there's also this one - Easy Summer Recipes from 1995:

If you don't have the cookbooks, just go to their website for lots of recipes. I love Campbell's soup - we always have a ton of it in our pantry. I enjoy soup for lunch in the summer, too - the choices are so plentiful!

Kellogg's Pep Cereal

I don't know when they quit making Pep Cereal - or changed the name to something else, but these advertisements from 1939 and 1941 caught my eye. Wifey is upset because her husband is a stay-at-home; apparently he likes nothing better than to relax with his pipe and slippers at the end of every day. He needs Pep!
"The harder a wife works, the cuter she looks". Oh, give me a break:
Daughter doesn't need perfume to be more popular - she needs Pep!

Well, there is definitely something to said for eating right and "getting your vitamins" - that much is certainly true.
And Kellogg's still does make a great assortment of cereals.

My Most Recent Thrift Finds

I DO love thrift shopping, especially when I find things like this - a gorgeous quilt top in a rainbow of colors:
A huge metal tray that will make a fab magnetic memo board, and a pair of pretty plates:
A green gingham apron to add to my collection, and some great old buttons which may or may not be Bakelite:
Santa!
He is a really nice older one - hard plastic - not the kind you could poke a hole into, but the kind that would crack into shards. Definitely a keeper for my vintage holiday collectibles that I LOVE:
And a little Hottle by Takahashi (minus it's cup, but still cute!), and a nice glass covered cake keeper I made by "marrying" two pieces found separately. (By the way, that sold about five minutes after I put it on the shelf at the shop!):

It's so much fun finding neat stuff!

Can (I) Can?

I think I can, I think I can....
I mean, I DO have some nice books that would tell me how - like this great one I found at a yard sale from 1948:
Mother did it, my sister Tina does it..
I remember having pears and cherries when we were growing up that Mother had "put up" - we even used to help pick the cherries - yum.
I think this Farm Journal book would tell me everything I needed to know:
Another fond memory from my childhood is of when our piano teacher, Mary Domingues, would have a pot of apple butter simmering in the kitchen while we took our lesson in the next room. Wish I had some of THAT right now!
I'd probably be more interested in canning fruit than vegetables- except maybe salsa - Tina makes some GREAT salsas! She even won the prize at the county fair one year.
I don't even have any of the "equipment", and I've never even tried - but maybe I will one of these days. Apple butter cooking on a nice fall day, made with apples from my favorite local apple ranch (Cover's in Tuolumne), sounds like a wonderful idea.
After all, autumn IS only two weeks away.
And maybe I can can.

What's Penny Wearing? #11

Penny is so pretty in pink today! In this long skirt, with a blouse in a paler shade:
And in this dress - I've had this one for YEARS - and it was a particular favorite!
I wore it a LOT.